Darkened Hearts
by Darkhero21
Summary: Kingdom Hearts had the potential to be a darker story than it was. This story will try to fix that
1. Chapter 1

Darkened Hearts

(For the most part, a slightly more intense retelling of Kingdom Hearts. SoraXKairi, no Riku Bashing, slightly intense, smart Sora) (Btw I'm using some BBS stuff in this story. Also they are their KH2 ages at the beginning. Sora: 15, Kairi: 15 Riku: 16) (3rd person)

Chapter 0 (Prologue): Similar But Not the Same

The first thing he realized was the darkness. At first he thought his eyes were closed but when he opened them there was still nothing but pure black. The next thing he realized was he felt like he was falling, very fast with something akin to the feel of water going past him. He felt a shock of panic go through his body. _'I'm gonna die aren't I?'_ he thought with fear. Out of nowhere a voice, sounding like a boy about his own age, say calmly _'relax; your story has only begun'._ Than a second voice, sounding eerily like his own said _'This is our successor? Were screwed aren't we?'_ the voice said with obvious contempt.

The boy kept falling through the dark until a bright circle appeared below him. Finally, his fall began to slow down and his body, which had been falling headfirst, started turning him into a standing position. Upon landing on the circle it exploded into hundreds of doves that fly off into the darkness. Looking down he noticed the circle has become a glass platform with a picture of himself, sitting on a slanted tree, staring into a sunset. Around him are two shapes.

One was a dully glowing silver circle surrounding a picture of a boy. He is silver haired with a somewhat smug grin on his face. But the smugness isn't taken seriously for if you look at the boy's bright green-blue eyes a person would see the kindness in them. _'Riku'_ the boy thought with familiarity. And then there was the other shape.

This one was a pink heart with light practically bursting out of it. In the center of the brightness there is a picture of a girl. She has shoulder length red hair, around his age, with bright blue eyes. The boy looked at the image of the girl and smiled. _'Kairi' _He thought with a sense of happiness.

Suddenly the glass platform shook and the boy struggled to keep his balance. When the shaking stopped, three stone blocks appeared. Floating above one was a sword; another was a Shield with the symbol of three circles, one big, the other two small connecting on the top of the big circle. The last one was a wand whose tip was the same symbol seen on the shield.

'_Choose one of the three, but be careful of your choices'_. The boy nodded and walked toward the wand. The voice said '_The power of the mystic. Inner strength. A staff of wonder and ruin'. _The boy then moved onto the sword. '_The power of the warrior. Invincible courage. A sword of terrible destruction'. _The boy did not like the sound of the sword. He had courage and there is no point of having the power of a warrior if all you can cause is terrible destruction. Finally he moved to the Shield. '_The power of the guardian. Kindness to aid friends. A shield to repel all'._ The boy heard the description and then backed to the center of the platform. He looked at the three weapons and nodded to himself.

He walked over to the shield and was about to grab it but then the voice asked '_Do you seek the power of the Guardian?'_ The Boy hesitated for only a moment, and then nodded his head. In a flash of light the shield disappeared. He jumped back in surprise. '_now choose what you are willing to give up'_. He looked at the two remaining weapons and immediately went for the sword. '_are you willing to give up the power of the warrior?'_ He nodded once and the sword vanished into thin air.

Immediately after, the stones tilted over and the shield appeared, strapped onto the boy's arm. Then the platform beneath him shattered like the glass it looked like. He fell once again in the darkness. After a while he lands on another platform exactly like the previous one except the pink heart of Kairi glowed much duller, while the circle image of Riku shone with a dark grey light.

Out of nowhere six small spots of black appeared on the platform. As the boy looked at them they gained form. They appeared insect like in form, with antennae on their heads, except their bodies were completely black and they had bright, eerily glowing yellow orbs for eyes. _'They are darkness given form' _the voice said with disdain. _'Ha! They will try to eat your heart! Oh wait, that would mean our MMPHQ!'_ the second voice said before it was seemingly muffled out. '_But don't be afraid_. _Show them your Strength' _The first voice said just as one of the creatures leaped at him, claws outstretched.

The Boy narrowed his eyes, and right as the creature was about to strike at him, slammed it in the face with the front of the shield, sending it flying away where it disappeared in a puff of black smoke. The other creatures saw this and three of the remaining six attacked. He held his shield out and using the bottom part, which was sharper than the rest of the shield, sliced one of them in half. Not wasting any time, he rolled to the side to avoid the other two. As one landed from their jump the boy attempted to slam the shield face down onto the creature, smashing it. But at the last second, the creature turned back into a dark spot and moved back towards it's allies, where it reformed into its normal shape.

The boy looked at the four that were gathered together and made a decision. He unstrapped himself from the shield and had it face flat, face up. He then flung it like a Frisbee at his full strength, sending it spinning towards the enemy, cutting all four of them in half. The remaining one saw this, and in desperation, rushed the boy. In a flash of light the shield reappeared on the boy's arm. The boy looked curiously at it before smashing the last creature into smoke.

'_Not bad, not bad.' _The main voice said with satisfaction. _'Now you may be ready'_ '_HA HA HA! I doubt it'_ the second voice said. The first voiced seemed to sigh and mumbled something along the lines of _'why do I have to deal with him?'_ The boy raised an eyebrow at the antics of the two voices but was distracted when what looked like a staircase made of glass appeared next to the platform that led up to what seemed like another platform. He figured he was supposed to go to the next platform so he shrugged his shoulders and started up the stairs.

While he climbed the stairs, unknown to him the two voices were arguing. _'Why are you making this so difficult?'_ The first voice said angrily. The second voice laughed and responded, '_Difficult? V-, you are making this too easy for him. You have to destroy him so you can build him up again but better'_ The first voice sighed and said '_You are wrong V-. But whatever, I'm tired of arguing with you right now, lets just watch him'_.

Finally the boy reached the next platform which, once again looked exactly like the last one. But this time the pictures of Riku and Kairi were not glowing one bit. _'Be aware'_ the first voice said, _'within the brightest light there is the deepest darkness'_. This puzzled the boy but before he could he could think about it his shadow appeared in front of him like a black mirror. Startled, the boy jumped back as he watched his shadow grow into a hulking giant. It had the body of a man, but was 10 stories high and had no mouth, as well as tentacles for hair. What stood out the most were the glowing yellow eyes like the small creatures.

_'But don't be afraid'_ the voice said again as the boy started backing away towards the stairs, only to see them disappear. Without any other choice, the boy stared at his shadow and got into a battle position. The monster his shadow turned into reared back its fist and attempted to punch the boy. The boy sidestepped and attempted to cut the fist with the sharp part of the shield he held. His attack hit, but seemed to do little to no damage to his foe. The monster lifted its hand up stared down at the boy, who responded by going for its thin legs.

He ran as fast as he could and got around the monster and, using all his strength, slammed his shield face first into the back of the monster's knee, making it stumble and fall over. Seizing his chance, the boy ran towards the down creature's head, jumped on top of it and stabbed the top of it_s_ head with the sharp part of the shield.

The creature got up, knocking the boy over, but then it stumbled backwards, wisps of black smoke coming out of its head. When it stumbled, a huge section of the platform underneath the boy's feet turned into some kind of black puddle, making the boy sink a little, he struggled for a bit but only sank further. Wisps of black smoke surrounded him, dragging him down further.

_'Don't be afraid'_ the first voice said kindly as the darkness surrounded the boy, making him close his eyes. '_For you hold the most powerful weapon of all… So be ready…Sora'_

(And that is the prologue! Thanks for reading)


	2. The Darkness Emerges

Darkened Hearts

Ch. 1: The Darkness Emerges

"AAAHHH!" Sora screamed as he shot up from the sandy beach. His eyes darted around for a few seconds before his brain caught up with reality and realized that what had just happened was just a dream. With a yawn he fell back down on his back only to look up and see a pair of blue eyes staring back at him. "Gah!" Sora shouted as he backed away only to hear laughing. "Geez, don't do that Kairi!" he said as he realized who was laughing.

He turned his body around and saw Kairi, who was wearing a red dress (KH2 outfit). She frowned at him. "You shouldn't be sleeping in the first place you lazy bum. We have to get everything we need for the raft!" Sora looked her in the eye and then pointed towards a pile near them. "Already got everything I'm supposed to get." He said with a shrug and he pushed himself to his feet. Kairi looked at the pile and saw he was telling the truth and then grunted. "Fine then, so what were you dreaming about?" This got Sora to pause from wiping sand off his back.

"It's hard to explain the whole thing but basically I was on this glass platform that had pictures of you, me and Riku. Then I was attacked by a bunch on small bug looking things! I had to fight them off with a shield." Sora demonstrated this by waving arms, causing Kairi to giggle. "Then after I fought a giant monster made out of my shadow, everything started fading to black and I heard someone say my name."

"Well you shouldn't be sleeping in the first place anyway." The two looked towards where the comment came from and saw it was Riku, who was carrying some supplies. "Hey I finished doing everything I had to do so I figured I could relax!" Sora countered. "Sure, I bet even if you hadn't gotten all of the stuff you would have fallen asleep anyway." Riku teased.

"Shut up" Sora grumbled, and then patted the sand on both sides of him, indicating that they should sit down. Riku sat on his right, Kairi on his left. When Kairi sat down Sora wrapped his arm around her shoulder. A moment of silence passed. "So…. We leave tomorrow" Sora said slowly. The other two nodded. Riku then said "We may never see this place again. This place or our parents."

This brought a moment of silence. After a minute Kairi shot up. "I've got it! We'll take a picture!" She pulled out a camera and then ran over to the dock where their friend Selphie was sitting. After a brief conversation they both walked back. "Okay you three, stand next to each other" Selphie said in her usual hyperactive voice. The other three walked in front of the water, Sora on the left, Kairi in the middle, and Riku on the right. "Okay I am going to take three pictures; one for each of you. Smile!" They all smiled as the camera flashed once, twice, three times.

The pictures developed after a while and each of them took one copy. By then it was sundown. "We should head back and sleep. We are going early tomorrow." Sora said as they walked to the docks where their boats were tied. They rowed back to the main island and then stopped at the fork where their houses separated. "Night" Riku said as he walked towards his house. Sora and Kairi looked at each other, hugged and said "Goodnight" at the same time and then left.

(Page break)

Hours later, around three o'clock Sora woke up to hear a low rumbling coming from outside. He got out of bed and looked up at the sky and his eyes widened in shock. "Oh no." In the sky there was a dark purple orb, the size of the play island, and it appeared to be edging closer to the smaller island.

Sora got dressed and jumped out his window. For whatever reason, he also took the picture of him, Riku and Kairi. When he got to the docks he saw that two of the boats were missing and Sora assumed that Riku and Kairi were on the play island already. He got into his own boat and rowed as fast as he could to the smaller island.

After a few minutes he arrived on the island, but upon arriving he saw the island was crawling with small, black, bug like creatures. "Wait," Sora murmured, "I've seen these things before. In my dream!" he said as the creatures took notice of him and started running at him. Sora looked around for a weapon to try and fight them off but all he saw was a toy wooden sword. With no other choice he grabbed the sword and attempted to swing at one of the creatures, but the sword seemed to pass right through the monster and it clawed his left leg. "Ah!" Sora grabbed his injured leg.

Realizing that the sword was useless against the monsters, Sora started running towards the mini island that Riku always sat at, hoping he was there. Along the way he had to avoid more of the strange, yellow eyed creatures as the continuously tried to attack. Finally, he reached the mini island and breathed a sigh of relief to see Riku there, staring out into the ocean.

"Riku!" Sora called out and Riku turned around. "Riku, what's going on? Where's Kairi?" Sora was breathing heavily, trying to calm down when Riku said calmly, "The door has opened." "What?" Sora asked, having no idea what Riku was talking about. "We will now go to a new world. Kairi's coming with us too so don't worry." Riku continued as his feet was surrounded by a puddle of black liquid. Sora looked up to Riku's eyes and saw only confidence. "Come on Sora. Together we can do this. I'm not afraid of the Darkness!" He held out his hand for Sora to take as the black puddle started enveloping his entire body. Sora tried to grab his hand but to no avail as the darkness swallowed Riku up.

The puddle started to take Sora too. _'_This is just like my dream' Sora said. He struggled to get out of the puddle but he only sunk further. He finally shouted, "GET! OFF! OF! MEEEEEE!" There was a bright flash of light and when Sora opened his eyes, the Darkness was no longer trying to drag him down. He then felt a weight in his hand and looked at what now was there.

It looked like a giant key. The blade was a long, silver pole, and at the teeth was in the shape of the crown pendent on Sora's necklace on the right side of the blade. Around the handle was an open yellow square, with a chain connected to it. Right above the yellow was a small blue band around the blade. At the end of the chain were three circles, one big one, and two small ones connected to the big circle.

_'Keyblade' 'Keyblade' 'Keyblade'_ The word echoed in the silence around Sora. He looked at the weapon once again. "A, Key….Blade?" he whispered. Then, more of the creatures crawled up the side of the mini island and attempted to strike. He looked at the weapon one more time, then at the creatures and made a decision.

He swung the "Keyblade" at one of the creatures that had jumped at him and was surprised as well as satisfied to see it connect with the monster, and destroy it, making it disappear in a puff of smoke. The other creatures noticed this, paused, and then rushed the boy with fervor. Spinning the Keyblade in front of him, Sora then stopped it, pointed it at the monsters and said in a quiet, yet deadly voice, "Come and get some" and then sliced through the nearest creature with the teeth of the weapon. Not stopping with the attack, Sora then spun around and hit another one with the flat side of the Keyblade, whacking it like a baseball, where it struck another monster, both disappearing in puffs of black smoke.

The remaining monsters, now realizing they were to be destroyed as well, sunk into the ground and ran away. Sora stood there for a few more moments. "What's going on?" Then remembering what was going on he looked up with a jolt. 'Kairi! I have to find her!' he thought with slight panic. He started running around the island, noticing that the dark sphere above the island was coming ever closer. 'Where would she be?'

Almost as if to answer his thoughts he heard the voice from his dream whisper '_Go to the Secret Place'_. Sora looked around for a moment, trying to find where the voice came from but the other voice shouted at him '_Stop looking for us and get going you idiot!'_ Sora decided to just go with what the voice said and ran to the cave where he, Riku and Kairi used to explore.

Inside the cave it is nothing impressive on the way in. It was just a slightly curved one way path that stopped at a dead end. But it was the dead end that was important. At the dead end there is a door. It is pretty plain, but has no handle, no lock, but does seem to lead somewhere. Whenever Sora went near the door as a child he would get a strange feeling that there was something important about that door.

Sora and Kairi once came into the dead end as six year olds and decided that they would each draw a picture and then show the other. After they had both finished they looked at each others work and laughed when they saw they drew crude pictures of each other.

Sora ran into the cave, through the curved path, and halted at the dead end. Standing there, looking at the door was Kairi. "Kairi!" Sora shouted. She turned around and Sora noticed she looked unusually pale. "Sora" She whispered, and then a huge gust seemed to come from the door, causing her to go flying towards Sora. He held out his arms, trying to catch her, but when she reached him she seemed to pass right through him, like a ghost. "What?" Sora shouted, but before he could think about it, an even stronger gust of wind carried him out of the cave and then all he saw was black.

(Page break)

Sora groaned as he slowly woke up from unconsciousness. He slowly stood up and his eyes widened in shock at what he saw.

There was almost nothing left of the islands. The play island, as well as the main island, was gone. All that was left was a large circle of sand floating up towards the black orb as debris from the islands was sucked up into it.

Sora felt immense shock, then incredible rage. He looked up at the orb and glared at it. In a flash of light the Keyblade appeared in his left hand but he was too angry to notice.

"COME AND GET ME!" Sora shouted, pointed the keyblade up at the orb. What appeared to be a bolt of black lightning struck the ground a few feet away from him. When the lightning cleared, the giant shadow monster from his dream appeared, its yellow eyes looking down at him. Sora looked up at it and yelled, "COME ON!" and jumped out of the way as the monster slammed its hand into the ground he was standing a few moments before.

Sora noticed that it was very slow, and using that to his advantage, ran towards the hand that was still on the ground and started wailing on it with a rain of slashes from the Keyblade. The creature had no mouth, so it could make no noise, but it appeared to be in pain. It fell onto one knee and its head slammed onto the ground. Seizing the opportunity, Sora rushed the downed creatures head with an angry shout, jumped into the air, and stabbed the keyblade into the monster's head.

For a moment, it seemed he did no damage. But after a few seconds, black smoke started coming out of its head, then its hands and feet, and finally it exploded in a huge puff of black smoke.

That same explosion, unfortunately, also shot Sora into the air, where he started floating towards the orb. His last thoughts as the darkness started to engulf him were of Riku and Kairi, and of the picture they took only hours ago.

(And that's the end of chapter 1! Hope you liked it and please Review. Feedback is appreciated)


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